


Anything for a Friend

by Ghostery



Series: Jim + Tilly Friendship [2]
Category: Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Secret Admirer, Starfleet Academy, Unrequited Crush, there's some grossness and creepiness in here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-02-27 00:30:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18728005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostery/pseuds/Ghostery
Summary: “Here’s the information you wanted,” Jim said, dropping the micro records on the table in front of Tilly. Water droplets splattered everywhere as they landed.“Ugh!” Tilly said as some of the water hit her. “Why are they wet?” She looked up at Jim. “Why are you wet?”“I’ll give you three guesses,” Jim said as he sat down across from her.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There's some gross stuff in here involving bodily fluids, nothing major just in passing, but I thought it bore mentioning. There's also some creepy behavior from one of the characters. I hope I struck a good balance with Tilly in this and that it doesn't come off as an overreaction. Kirk's academy days are a mess like a lot of TOS canon, but I tried. Also, in TNG's "The First Duty", Wesley Crusher's dorm room has a swinging door. Go figure. No beta, so all mistakes are mine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 9/26/19: Low-level edits.

“Here’s the information you wanted,” Jim said, dropping the micro records on the table in front of Tilly.

Water droplets splattered everywhere as they landed.

“Ugh!” Tilly said as some of the water hit her. “Why are they wet?” She looked up at Jim. “Why are you wet?”

“I’ll give you three guesses,” Jim said as he sat down across from her.

He took off his drenched uniform jacket, laying it out on the table away from Tilly’s work. He started on his boots.

“Well, it can’t be rain. Sitting out here,” she gestured at the manicured academy campus around them, brightly lit by sunshine, “I definitely would have noticed.”

“Well, I’d hope so, but you can be pretty intense sometimes.” He said, shaking out the water from his shoes and balancing them upside down on the bench beside him.

She ignored his comment, it wasn’t like he was any better.

“That leaves... Oh no.”

“Oh yes,” he replied, wringing out his socks.

He laid them next to his jacket.

“Finnegan.”

“Who else? You know, if they’d just update this place with the sliding doors they use in ships, it’d eliminate at least a third of my problems.”

“So you’ve said. Do you want a towel or something?”

“No, it’s pretty warm out here. I’ll dry out.”

“Suit yourself. How’d he get you anyway?”

“You know that door that maintenance sometimes props open?”

“The one on the side of our dorm building? Yeah.”

“There was a bucket of water on it. I opened the door and...” he gestured at himself. “I don’t have any proof it was Finnegan, but—“

“It was Finnegan,” Tilly finished.

They’d both about had it with Finnegan. Sure, this bucket over the door shtick was fairly harmless, unless you had a review in 5 minutes, but he just didn’t stop. Okay, he hadn’t messed with her since he’d given her wrong directions her first day, but he had some sort of campaign against Jim. Which was unacceptable. Jim was her friend. Jim was a good person. Jim didn’t deserve any of this. She also felt deeply that while there was some fun to be had on a starship among its crew, it should be good-spirited and it should stop before it got out of hand.

As far as Tilly was concerned, Finnegan’s antics had crossed that line some time ago. The thing with the soup had been ridiculous. The time Jim had found a puddle of thawing vomit on the floor by his door had been so gross. The snide comments and backhanded compliments when they crossed paths were odious, but still not actionable. The old bucket of water gag had been ludicrous until the time the bucket had hit Jim on the way down and cut his face. He’d shown up to review soaked and bloody. Their instructor was livid and ultimately understanding, but Jim radiated embarrassed rage for the rest of the day.

The problem was, they’d never been able to pin any of it on Finnegan. He always ended up with enough plausible deniability to skate by. The other problem was Jim himself.

“Are you sure you don’t want to do anything about this?” Tilly asked.

“What would we do exactly? Nobody’s been able to prove anything. The man’s a poltergeist. Plus, he’s only got a few more months here. Then we won’t have to deal with him again and once he’s on assignment, they’ll straighten him out or he’ll be drummed out.”

“I’m not sure the crewmen where ever he ends up deserve that.”

“Probably not.” Jim shrugged. He’d always said some variation of this whenever she brought it up. Well, that didn’t really stop her from doing something. She didn’t need Jim’s approval to take action, although it would help with planning.

The bottom line was that Jim was her friend and there was a lot Tilly would do for her friends.

 

* * *

 

Tilly scanned the dining hall, tray in hand. She saw Jim wave at her from his table with their other friends and waved back so he’d know she saw him. She wasn’t looking for him, but three tables beyond Jim was her target with an open seat conveniently in front of him.She headed that way, smiling at Jim’s confused face as she walked right past him.

“Is this seat taken?” She asked cheerfully.

“Uh, no?” Finnegan responded.

“Great,” she sat down, still smiling.

“Er, can I help you?” Finnegan looked uncharacteristically alarmed and confused.

“Yes, actually, you can,” Tilly said. Tilly turned around in her seat and pointed at Jim who had turned in his seat to look at her, his expression mirrored Finnegan’s. “See that guy?” Tilly turned back around. “He’s my friend and I’d really appreciate it if you stopped messing with him.”

“What?”

“You heard me. I know it’s you setting up all these _jokes_ at his expense.”

Tilly hadn’t ever thought that they were jokes, she thought it was closer to bullying or hazing and tried to pass on that sentiment through her pronunciation.

“Wait, you’re friends with that guy?”

“Uh, yeah? I just said that. Way to pay attention. Look, I know you’re an upperclassman and all, but I’ve got to tell you, your behavior to people lower down the chain than you and my friend, in particular, is abhorrent. You need to knock it off before it’s not just an _uppity plebe_ telling you this, it’s a superior officer and you’re getting passed over for promotions or whatever it is you want out of your career.” She relished the chance to throw his own words at him for once. “Got anything to say? No? Good.”

Tilly got up and walked back to Jim’s table, and sat down across from him. She looked over his shoulder to where Finnegan was still looking at her bewildered. She turned her attention to Jim.

“Tilly, what was _that_?” Jim asked.

“Nothing,” Tilly replied, tucking into her food.

“Like hell it was,” Jim said.

“Well, it’s not like you were going to do anything.”

“Tilly,” Jim said.

“I just gave him a friendly warning.”

“Uh huh,” Jim said, “well, I hope you didn’t make things worse.”

Tilly hoped so too. It’d probably make Finnegan easier to catch, but at what cost to her friend or even herself?

 

* * *

 

Things were quiet after that. The pranks stopped and Finnegan didn’t say anything to Jim whenever they passed on campus. He just ignored him. Jim’s guard was still up, but as time passed he was able to relax.

Tilly wasn’t so lucky though. It felt like every time she turned around she’d see Finnegan. He never did anything, but it was unnerving. She’d rarely seen him around before she’d confronted him. She dreaded whatever he was planning, but maybe she could get the upper hand. She was an engineer after all.

 

* * *

 

Tilly closed the food slot door and put in her micro record and ordered a hot chocolate for herself. One brief glow and quiet whirr later and the door opened with a steaming mug inside. She grabbed it and took a drink. A little reward for herself after her hard work. She smiled. Shift a few bits and change the world, that’s what engineering could be. The food slots were mostly solid-state and hard to break, but these were older systems, the types she’d grown up with while traveling with her parents. There were always a few exploitable bugs that weren’t patched in these things. One of them meant that for a vanishingly small percentage of students, most of whom weren’t even on campus and therefore unaffected, could order anything and only be dispensed the vilest nutritional drink Tilly had ever tasted. Whoever had decided it was banana split flavored was just delusional. It just so happened that Cadet Finnegan would be one of those affected, totally at random, of course.

“Oh, that smells good,” a voice behind her said. “Any chance you’d be kind enough to order one for me?”

Tilly turned around. Like she’d summoned him, it was Finnegan.

“Sure,” she said.

It wouldn’t do any good to tip her hand now.

“Thanks,” he replied.

She put her micro record back in and ordered another one. When it was ready, she grabbed it and turned around to hand it off to him. He was right there, only about half a meter away from her. It was creepy.

“Yep, I was right this is good and not the usual recipe?” he asked after taking a sip. Tilly shrugged. “Long day?”

“Could be,” Tilly said, she wasn’t going to commit to anything.

Finnegan hummed, sipping from his mug, it left a bit of foam on his upper lip. She didn’t mention it.

“Send me the recipe, would you?” He said. “I’m Sean Finnegan, by the way. I’m sure you’ll be able to find me in the directory.”

Then he just walked off. Tilly rushed back to her dorm. Whatever that had been, she didn’t like it. It wasn’t even like he’d done anything. Her room didn’t look tampered with. She’d ordered her drink before he showed up, so he couldn’t have done anything to it. She’d have noticed if the food slot had been messed with while she was in there.

She’d just have to wait and see.

 

* * *

 

Tilly was eating dinner alone, her friends were all busy meeting professors during their office hours. She’d gotten her appointment out of the way early, but now she was paying for it. At least she could do some reading for class.

“Hey, you’re an engineer, right?” She looked up from her PADD.

It was Finnegan, again, sliding into the seat across from her.

“Yeah…” she said.

“Good, maybe you can help me,” he said. Tilly’s brows knitted together. “I’ve already talked to maintenance about this, but they seem pretty clueless and you clearly know something about the food slots, if your hot chocolate is anything to go by.” He smiled lopsidedly at her. Tilly’s heart was hammering anxiously in her chest, but she was trying not to show it. “You see, every time I try to get something from it, Emergency Liquid Nutritional Ration #14 is the only thing it gives me and I’m heading for some important exams, so I really need coffee.”

“Uh, well, no. I don’t think I can help. Sorry.” Tilly said, trying not to trip over her words. Finnegan shrugged like he’d expected that answer. “It’s just that someone would probably have to reload all the student profiles from back up and reboot the system. There’s no way I’d have clearance for that.” Tilly said.

“Reload and reboot, huh? I’ll pass that along.” He looked behind her for a fraction of a second before refocusing unnervingly on her face. “Thanks for your advice and that recipe,” he said with a terrifying wink.

He got up and left for another table. His hand brushed hers as he picked up his tray. Tilly shuddered involuntarily at the contact. She startled again a few seconds later when someone slid into the seat beside her.

“Uh, Tilly, what the hell?”

It was Jim. She could have hugged him, but just pushed her tray away and laid her head down on her arms on the table with a groan. Jim squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. Once she felt like she could breathe again, she sat back up and looked at Jim’s extremely concerned face. His hand was still on her shoulder like he was afraid she’d tip over if he took it away.

“I think he just wanted my help? Something about the food slots?” She managed to say.

“What? That doesn’t even make sense.” Jim said finally taking his hand away so he could eat.

“I know,” Tilly said glumly.

“I know you know, but does he?”

“He does now.”

“Do you want me to fight him? Because I’ll do it.”

His voice was all earnestness. Tilly just laughed, but it was half-hearted. Jim looked at her and wrapped her in an awkward half-hug, one arm around her shoulders, for a brief second.

“Seriously, I’ll do it. Just say the word.”

“I appreciate the gesture, but your expulsion wouldn’t make me feel any better,” Tilly responded.

 

* * *

 

Tilly tried to get on with her life, she didn’t have time not to even with occasional interruptions from Finnegan. He always approached her when her friends, especially Jim, weren’t around.

He just also didn’t do anything to her. He kept a polite distance and definitely didn’t touch her again. He never said anything that was inappropriate to her. There was none of the snideness that had characterized all of the times he’d talked to Jim in the past. He was, by all appearances, perfectly friendly. It made her so nervous she could throw up.

Then after one incredibly stilted conversation where he asked her about her engineering focus and talked about his work in security, she started finding things. She’d find a note on actual paper stuck to her door, with ‘Good morning! :)’ written on it. She didn’t recognize the handwriting. There might be a flower secured to her door with some sort of adhesive tape. Once there was even a wrapped souvenir snow globe that was supposed to depict Risa’s Suraya Bay tucked in by the door frame. She wondered exactly how that had even gotten made. Risa didn’t have snow. How would someone explain a snow globe to a Risan?

She, of course, couldn’t confirm it was Finnegan doing this. The timing was certainly suspect, though. She just also couldn’t fathom why he would do this.

Which is why, one morning, she woke up early and listened for any sound on the other side of her door. She’d almost dozed off when a soft thump brought her back to full alert.

She wrenched the door open.

“Uh, hi?” It was Finnegan. “Um, this is for you.”

He held out a small bunch of lilacs.

“Why?”

It was all Tilly could think to say.

“Because you deserve flowers?” He said, wary and unsure. Tilly blinked at him.

“Seriously? You torment my friend for months, I confront you about it, then you ask me for my hot chocolate recipe and about my life, and now you give me flowers?”

She was incredibly angry. Where had he even found lilacs? They weren’t in bloom anywhere around here.

“Um… yes.” He was still holding out the flowers. “Look, I’m sorry about your friend. I tried apologizing in person, but he kept avoiding me? So, I sent him a message, but I don’t think he read it. It’s okay if you don’t believe me, but you could ask him about it?”

“Oh, I will.” She was still angry.

“Good. Right. Yeah.” He blew out a breath. “Anyway, you were right, I took it too far with him. I didn’t see what a jerk I was being.”

“Okay.”

“I’m also sorry if I scared you. It’s just… I’ve never had someone stick up for me as you did for him and… you’re so jumpy around me and I don’t like that. I’ve been hoping if I just tried talking to you you’d feel better around me.” He looked away and then back to her. “You’re just so amazing and I just want you to like me because I like you. I was even kind of hoping we could go out on a date, eventually...”

His voice trailed off then as he realized fully what a long shot that was for the first time. He stopped holding out the flowers and his hand dropped down to his side.

Tilly’s mind was reeling. He had some kind of a crush on her? That was why he was leaving her notes and little gifts, talking to her, and everything? Was that why he’d been picking on Jim? He hadn’t said that, but it seemed possible to her. Jim wasn’t a hands-off type of friend and it wouldn’t be the first time that this had given the wrong impression.

She was getting a headache and not just from the lilac pollen. This had not been one of her theories and if this was some elaborate prank then someone was going to die, probably her just from the horror of it all. She pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Okay. You need to stop. You need to stop with the flowers and trailing me around and all of the notes and the presents and especially the flowers because I am so allergic to pollen.”

“Shit, really? I’m s—“

“Yeah, I know, you’re sorry. I appreciate the sentiment, but I need you to understand that what you’ve been doing is beyond not okay. You, Sean Finnegan, bullied my friend, Jim Kirk, and my classmates, right?”

Her voice became more strident with every word. Some small corner of her mind realized she was channeling her mother.

“Yes.”

His voice was a squeak, but it was clear enough.

“You also, however unintentionally, terrorized me. Do you understand this?”

“Yes.”

A more morose squeak.

“The only way you can even try to fix this is to leave us alone. Can you do that?”

“Yeah, whatever you need.”

Now he was just morose.

“I also need you to know that I have a communicator that has been recording this entire conversation and I will use it if I have to.”

He winced at that but still nodded. Not good enough.

“Okay?” She prompted.

“Yeah, I understand.”

He hung his head.

“Good. Now. Go. Away.”

He left. She watched him until he was out of sight, the lilacs drooping from now broken stems. She shut her door and tapped the communicator that had been in range but out of sight, saving the recording to her personal files, just in case. She hugged herself. It still very early on a Saturday, but she didn’t want to be alone. Almost nobody she knew would be already awake.

 

* * *

 

Tilly noticed Jim was a little bleary-eyed from sleep when he opened his door, but he was already dressed and probably about to head down for breakfast.

“Tilly? What happened? Why are you shaking?” he asked waking up more with every sentence.

Tilly didn’t respond, but the next thing she knew they were hugging with her head pressed unapologetically to his chest and tears in her eyes, both from emotion and from her immune response to the damned lilacs. His hand rubbed circles on her back.

“You’re okay, Tilly. You’re safe. Whatever happened, it’s over now. Okay? I’ve got you,” he whispered, repeating similar sentiments until she finally started to calm down and pulled away.

Without her noticing, he’d walked her further into his dorm room, closer to his bed. The way he was still looking at her and holding on to her upper arms, he probably thought she was going to fall over. Shaking his hands off, she sat down and he joined her, sitting next to her.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

She wiped her eyes with her hand and nodded.

“Oh geez,” he said embarrassed, reaching over and opening a desk drawer, “I only have handkerchiefs right now.” He held up the folded square of fabric. “It’s clean.”

He handed it to her and she took it gratefully.

“Finnegan’s the one who's been leaving those things at my door. I caught him this morning,” she said quietly.

“Oh, Tilly,” Jim said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She leaned into it. “I was serious about fighting him or I can hold him down while you fight him.”

Tilly was too upset to smile at that. Her words were still muted when she spoke again.

“I guess he had a crush on me. I confronted him about all of it. I recorded the whole thing with a communicator. I got him to admit to everything and say he’d leave all of us alone.”

To her surprise, Jim chuckled.

“I am so glad I’m on your side. You’re terrifying when you want to be,” he said. She nudged him with her elbow. “Was this your plan, then?”

“No, not really. I mean, I wanted him to stop, so I tried talking to him. I messed with the food slots so they’d only give him liquid emergency rations.”

“Which one?” Jim asked, pulling away to look at her.

She didn’t look at him, though.

“Number fourteen,” she replied.

Jim hissed.

“Wow, that’s mean. I love it.”

Jim had a smile in his voice and Tilly grinned in response to it, then she sobered.

“I didn’t expect him to talk to me about it. I really didn’t expect him to _keep_ talking to me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“He never did anything. He was totally polite and even nice."

“Sounds terrifying. You should have told someone.” Jim said, perfectly serious.

“I didn’t know he had a crush on me. I figured it was him leaving all that stuff, but I thought he was just trying to mess with me.”

“So you waited for him with a communicator and confronted him,” Jim said and Tilly nodded. “What’d he say?”

“That he was sorry. That he’d sent you an apology message,” she paused waiting for confirmation from him.

“I guess if I squinted I could see an apology in that mess he sent me. I hope you got a better one from him.”

“He also said he was hoping to ask me out and that’s why he left all the little gifts and kept finding me and talking to me. I mean, I hoped that I would get him on record, but not everything else.”

“Well, you do have him on record now and he knows that, right?” Jim asked and Tilly nodded. “That’s good. If he’s not completely stupid, he’ll stay far away from you.”

“I guess.”

It was reassuring to think of that. Knowing she had proof did make her feel a lot better. 

“That was the goal.”

“Yeah.”

“Mission accomplished, then. You know, we should go off campus for breakfast, to celebrate.”

“You’ll need a new shirt. I cried all over that one.”

“It’ll wash and I have plenty of shirts. Is that a ‘yes’ for breakfast off campus?”

“Yeah,” Tilly responded, “I’ll need to wash my face first, though.”

“Well, you know where the sinks in this place are.”

He got up to dig out a new shirt from his dresser. A sudden realization hit Tilly and she flopped back on the bed, pulling Jim’s pillow over her face and yelling into it.

“Whoa, whatever it is don’t suffocate yourself over it.”

She felt Jim trying to pull the pillow away from her, she held it tighter and mumbled into it.

“I don’t speak pillow, Tilly,” Jim said as he finally got the pillow away from her and hugged it to his chest as he stood upright again.

Tilly stared at the ceiling.

“I forgot to give him the damn snow globe back.” She said, irritated.

“We’ll grab it on our way out. I’ll throw it through his window if you’d like.” Tilly considered everything but Jim breaking a window with the snow globe.

“Nah, I think I’ll keep it.”

“Don’t get sentimental on me now, Tills,” Jim said, some of it was muffled by his shirt as he changed.

“I’m not. It’s just, have you looked at that thing? It’s comical, the snow is _green and orange_.”

“Truly a prime example of the art.” He held out his hands and she took them. He pulled her up to her feet. “Come on, I’m starving.”

Tilly looked down at their joined hands. “He thought we were dating,” she blurted, pulling her hands from his.

“Really? Huh. First your mother and now him. I never even considered it. No offense meant. I just like to date people that are less completely terrifying and vicious than you.”

“I’m neither of those things.”

“I’ll admit it doesn’t happen often, but you absolutely can be.”

“Okay, less talking about my supposed alter ego and more going and getting breakfast.”

Jim laughed in response and followed her out the door.


	2. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Also, I don’t care what she says, she’s so attached to that grim specter of a textbook that she may as well be dating him. She probably ran straight to him.”  
> “He’s not that bad, Finn. He just doesn’t find you funny. Also, he can just walk up and hug her if he wants. It’s stuff like that making you biased,” Roberts said. Finnegan just glared.  
> “Perhaps repeatedly playing practical jokes on her companion was not the wisest course of action. Your attempts may have more been efficacious if you had just been kind to her and not antagonized her companion from the outset.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know. I was revising something else and this just happened. I hope you like it.

A small group of cadets watched curiously as the gloomy raincloud who was more usually known as Sean Finnegan walked into the common area. He didn’t look at them as he trudged to the recycler built into the wall and threw in a handful of mangled lilacs. Finally, one of them whistled a long descending note.

“What the hell happened, Finn?” he asked.

Finnegan didn’t answer him right away, he walked over to one of the room’s armchairs and sat down.

“What do you think happened, Roberts? She turned me down cold, that’s what happened.”

“Why? I thought it was going well, you were making progress. She was actually talking to you and everything.”

“I messed up. She’s scared of me and she’s got me on record admitting to everything. She could probably get me expelled for harassment or something. Plus, she’s allergic to the damn flowers.”

“Yeah, that sounds bad, to put it mildly.”

“Also, I don’t care what she says, she’s so attached to that grim specter of a textbook that she may as well be dating him. She probably ran straight to him.”

“He’s not that bad, Finn. He just doesn’t find you funny. Also, he can just walk up and hug her if he wants. It’s stuff like that making you biased,” Roberts said.

Finnegan just glared.

“Perhaps repeatedly playing practical jokes on her companion was not the wisest course of action. Your attempts may have been more efficacious if you had just been kind to her and not antagonized her companion from the outset.”

“Gee thanks Spock, way to give your input in a timely manner.”

“I initially gave you this advice the first time you expressed your interest in her, your jealousy, and explained your proposed course of action in my presence several months ago. You can still use this experience to inform your later attempts with other people. I would not advise that you attempt again with her unless you would like to risk expulsion.”

“He’s got you there, Finn,” Roberts said. Finnegan shrugged. Roberts continued, “Spock, how do you even know who we’re talking about?”

“I admit that I do not know the cadets in question. However, you have spoken of them often in my presence, even though you continually omit their names. I assume this is because you did not wish to risk any interference from me in your affairs.”

“Right. You don’t date, though. Do you, Spock?” Roberts asked.

“It would not be logical for me to date.”

“So how do Vulcans find someone to be with, then?” Finnegan asked.

“Typically, we do not find someone for ourselves. Our parents arrange suitable matches for us as children. Later, as adults, we enter into a marriage bond with our match.”

“So, you’ve already got someone somewhere?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“Spock, right now I don’t know whether to feel sorry for you or think you’re one lucky son of a—” Finnegan stopped as Roberts shook his head and mimed slitting his own throat frantically from just out of Spock’s sight. “Gun,” he finished lamely.

“Neither of my parents are primitive firearms.”

“It’s just a figure of speech, Spock,” Finnegan said.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is, as always, appreciated.  
> [My tumblr](https://bitterific.tumblr.com/)


End file.
